My Favorite Christmas Decoration
Ever heard of a Caganer? Neither did I until some three years ago. “Caganer” literally means pooper. A Caganer, then is a figurine of a man squatting to defecate. Should you venture a Wikipedia search you will find the following description:
A Caganer (Catalan pronunciation: [kəɣəˈne]) is a figurine depicted in the act of defecation appearing in nativity scenes in Catalonia and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra, Valencia, and Northern Catalonia (in southern France). It is most popular and widespread in these areas, but can also be found in other areas of Spain (Murcia), Portugal, and southern Italy (Naples).
I won’t blame you that if when you read this you thought the part about this figurine being a Christmas decoration and that one placed in the nativity scene is a hoax that will soon by corrected by an editor. But it is not. Many Christians puts a man busy to defecate in their nativity scenes. There is a traditional, classic version of this figure that have the pooper dressed in standard traditional Catalonian garb but there are also many modern versions which have a well-known figure dressed (or should I say partially undressed) as the pooper. I saw a version which had the pope in the same vulnerable position.
Now, as if you are not shocked and baffled enough about everything I have just told you…I have to break it to you that this Caganer is my favourite Christmas decoration. It turned from a bizarre joke relic to a treasured one for me when I read about what it symbolized.
See, the Caganer as far as we know originated in the late seventeenth century. There are various explanations as to its symbolism. One of them has it that the pooper stands for fertilization. It defecating on the very soil of the nativity scene ensures fertile soil on which the nativity story will be carried over from one year to the next and thus from generation to generation.
But my favourite explanation, the reason why the Caganer became my number one Christmas generation is this: Nothing in the nativity scene looks more out of place than the Caganer. It therefore carries a message to every outsider, outcast and immigrant (it was especially associated with immigration) that there is a place in the well-known and well-loved Christmas story for even the most strange and way-out life stories . The Caganer then wants to earth the story of Jesus’s birth. It wants to bring it home as deep and intimate as our washrooms…It wants to prevent us from keeping the story unrelated to our own lesser known and less glamorous, often messy and complicated life realities. It points to what this baby in the manger was sent for. For sinning poopers like you and I.
There is this year so much that poops on our Christmas plans and celebrations. Restrictions, a pandemic, fear of getting sick. Death. Division. Uncertainty. Our own insecurities and mistakes. Faith and hope might lie more than ever in our ability to believe that what we see as poopers that doesn’t befit and spoil our Christmas joy, Jesus uses as fertilizer that can eventually deepen it.
From one pooper to another: Merry Christmas.
Now if you will excuse me…I need to go to the washroom.
Gabriel J Snyman
December 21st 2020